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(1817–94) Confederate general and politician, born in Twiggs County, Georgia. Cook was a regimental and brigade commander in the Army of Northern Virginia. As an officer in, then colonel of, the 4th Georgia Infantry, he fought with distinction at Malvern Hill and at Antietam (both 1862), where he was wounded. In the Battle of the Wilderness (1864), Cook helped lead Stonewall Jackson's offensive against the right flank of the Army of the Potomac. There, Cook overwhelmed a sector of the XI Corps line, captured six cannon, and pursued the Federals to a second defensive line, suffering a broken leg from a minié ball (1863). After recuperating while serving in the Georgia state senate, Cook returned to the field, commanding a brigade. He was promoted to brigadier general in 1864 and fought at Cedar Creek and Fort Stedman, where he was severely wounded a third time (1865).

From The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military in Oxford Reference.